


in a year

by chaehyungwonies



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, One Shot, its mostly focused on the nct 127 ensemble, jaeyong is a pairing too but i don't include it much so i didn't tag it, renjun is there just in essence, yuwin is a side pairing but they are still important to the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 08:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15968228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaehyungwonies/pseuds/chaehyungwonies
Summary: Silence was something else Yukhei had learned by falling in love with Mark. Sometimes the little things—the soft snores of a loved one deep in sleep, or the echoes of a familiar ringtone that didn’t actually ring, a ringtone that wouldn’t ring as long as the problems between potential caller and called party remained unfixed—ended up being what one most needed to hear in the cacophony silence created.





	in a year

**Author's Note:**

> i sat down and wrote this in a day because i seriously cannot stop thinking abt the 99 vlive when yukhei called mark's hand "baby hand (손)" when they were sizing each other's hands . it has possessed my brain almost daily since it's inception but this time i did smth and that smth was supposed to be like 2K tops but here we are .
> 
> quick side note: ge is the chinese equivalent of hyung

Yukhei slowly looked from the novel in his hands as he heard a soft shuffling sound across the way. He rose an eyebrow with interest, eyes following a young man who made his way to the couch in the hall's common room. The other man wasn’t anyone Yukhei could remember seeing before; he had short black hair decorated with a headband that covered the top of his piercings studded ears, a button nose that wrinkled when he pouted, and tired brown eyes that closed the instant he sat down. The stranger was cute and Yukhei could feel something in his chest flutter when the other man bit at his bottom lip as he pouted. Yukhei was very tempted to say hello but something about the situation kept the words from leaving his mouth even though he really wanted to say something.

 

The stranger didn’t pout for long. He pulled out his phone and grumbled to himself, typing on the glass screen before coming to a sudden stop. Yukhei then realized he had been staring for who knew how long and he quickly reopened his book to look more distracted than he was. Headband Guy wasn’t about to let up the staring though.

 

“Is there something you want?” he asked, voice warm and deep while simultaneously ringing obvious irritation.

 

Yukhei shook his head and kept his eyes staring at the black ink he wasn’t deciphering. Korean was still difficult for him to learn in some ways and his roommate/long-time best friend, Sicheng, was _supposed_ to be helping him with the text but Sicheng was often busy with his Japanese transfer student boyfriend Yuta.

 

“Come study abroad at my university, Xuxi!” Sicheng had said when Yukhei was looking at options for his junior year. “You can continue learning Korean and we can be at the same school again if only for a year.”

 

Yukhei got admitted into the program he was most interested in and overall, studying at this university was the best option for him. Sicheng’s presence was simply an added bonus. Unfortunately for Yukhei, Sicheng had gotten a boyfriend a few weeks before Yukhei’s arrival and mostly left Yukhei on his own. Moving from China to Korea and being forced to speak a language he had only studied formally for the past 4 years was a bit of a struggle. Yukhei wouldn’t say he was bitter—Sicheng didn’t ignore him most of the time, it was just whenever Yukhei needed him most, Sicheng wasn’t available.

 

Shaking his head from his trailing thoughts, Yukhei decided he should engage with this stranger after all. Yukhei wasn’t a quiet guy and he’d be fooling himself for the next few minutes if he tried to act like he didn’t want to talk. So, he coughed lightly and closed his book, smiling to himself when Headband Guy looked over at him with raised eyebrows. “I’m Lucas,” he started, introducing himself with his English name as he commonly did with anyone he encountered at this school.

 

“I’m Mark,” Headband Guy muttered, shrugging to himself as he placed his phone down. “I haven’t seen you around campus.”  


 

Yukhei grinned. “I’m new; I’m an exchange student from Hong Kong!”

 

“Me too,” Mark chuckled to himself. “Not new or from Hong Kong, though. I’m from Vancouver, out in Canada. It's my second year here.”

 

Hearing Mark say _Canada_ with a very thick accent certainly confirmed that fact for Yukhei if nothing else did. He smiled to himself. “We’ve already found something we have in common.”

 

Mark nodded quietly and turned back to his phone for a short moment before turning back to Yukhei and pointing at his book. “Is that the Advanced Korean Language class reading?”

 

“Oh,” Yukhei patted at the book. “Yeah, it is. I thought it would be a little easier given I studied Korean back in Hong Kong but it’s a lot harder than I expected. My roommate is supposed to help me but he’s probably busy sucking face with his boyfriend.” the Chinese man crossed his arms with a small pout. “Sometimes I want a boyfriend out just so he can get a test of his own goddamn medicine.”

 

Mark snorted loudly. “Oh, tell me about it. My roommate consistently brings his boyfriend over and I really don’t mind but when I’m trying to study, I really don’t need them drooling over each other in my face for hours.”

 

“Drooling?” asked Yukhei, a small blush hitting his cheeks with the embarrassment from not understanding what Mark meant by that.

 

“Ah, _drooling_ ,” the black haired young man replied in English, smiling when Yukhei _ahh_ ’d with understanding. “Hey, whenever your roommate isn’t busy with his boyfriend, I could help you out if you’d like? I took that class last year and I’m comfortable with the language.”

 

“That would be such a big help, wow; thank you!” Yukhei’s grin grew wider and he shuffled around in his pockets for his phone. “Here, give me your number and I’ll send you a text whenever Sicheng-hyung forgets I exist.”

 

“Sicheng-hyung? As in Winwin-hyung?”

 

Yukhei froze in the middle of standing up, eyes going wide with surprise. He was so shocked he slipped into Chinese to express himself. “You know Sicheng-ge? Really?” Mark blinked and Yukhei realized his slip up, apologizing profusely for the mistake before repeating himself in Korean.

 

“Oh, yeah. We had a couple classes together and my roommate is really good friends with him.”

 

Yukhei narrowed his eyes. “Is your roommate Yuta-hyung?”

 

“No, Taeyong-hyung, but the name Yuta is familiar.”

 

“Small world,” muttered Yukhei before he took the short strides to Mark’s side and passed along his phone. Now that Yukhei was at Mark’s side, he realized how small Mark looked beside him and it made his brain wonder if he could rest Mark’s head against his chest if the other man stood up. Mark passed his phone over which brought Yukhei back to reality and they sat in moderate silence as they exchanged phone numbers. Yukhei kind of liked this comfortable silence.

 

When they returned each other’s phones, Mark looked at Yukhei’s new contact name and smiled softly as he tapped at the screen. “Pretty eyed Lucas,” he chuckled before looking up at the other man. “I guess that’s right. Your eyes are pretty.”

 

“Huh,” frowned the taller man as he looked over from inspecting his own phone. Mark had simply added himself as _Mark Lee_ but Yukhei didn’t recall adding himself in Mark’s phone as _Pretty eyed Lucas_. He definitely wasn’t about to let his brain ponder the fact that this cute stranger had just called his eyes pretty. “Isn’t it just _Lucas Wong_?”

 

“I may have made some minor modifications to your contact name so I remember which Lucas you are.” chuckled Mark as he pulled himself out of his chair with a soft smile and Yukhei felt his cheeks flame up with embarrassment.

 

“You know many people named Lucas or something?”

 

Mark shook his head and patted at Yukhei’s arm as he passed by. His hand was small against Yukhei and he had to look up in order to make eye contact. Something in Yukhei’s heart melted and he felt his cheeks redden. Yeah, Mark could definitely rest his head on Yukhei’s chest while standing.

 

“No,” started the shorter man, “I wanted an excuse to call you pretty and watch you blush. I’m glad it worked.” Mark smiled and waved to Yukhei as he passed by. “I’ll talk to you later.”

 

Yukhei couldn’t get his tongue to move fast enough to say goodbye back, so he meekly waved and watched the other man make his way downstairs and out of sight. He felt upstaged; usually Yukhei was the one for flirting and making passes but Mark had certainly got the better of him this day. He smirked to himself and changed Mark’s contact name to _Baby Hands Mark_ before returning to his seat to finish reviewing the chapter in the book he was working on before Mark’s arrival.

 

Four days later when Sicheng texted to eat out for dinner, Yukhei figured it meant he would be third wheeling Sicheng’s date with Yuta for the _nth_ time. What he didn’t expect was the company Sicheng had invited alongside himself, Yuta, and Yukhei.

 

“Hey, Lucas!” Mark smiled as he waved at Yukhei when he and his roommate entered the restaurant.

 

(Yukhei had only reached out to Mark once since their first encounter; in fact, it was the day before this dinner meet up. They had spent Mark’s lunch break together going over grammar since Sicheng had theater sectional. Yukhei barely remembered anything because Mark kept pouting and running fingers through his curled hair and it was _very_ distracting but Yukhei didn’t want to interrupt the study session just because his eyes couldn’t stay off Mark’s lips whenever he was talking.

 

He was also pretty sure Mark knew he was very distracted because during the course of the meet-up Mark kept putting his fingers to his lips and tilting his head cutely whenever Yukhei tested out speaking different phrases. He also seemed to like it when Yukhei stumbled over his words if they made eye contact at these moments. )

 

Sicheng gave Yukhei a surprised look at Mark’s words. “You know Mark? How come you never told me?”

 

“Didn’t really have the time,” mumbled Yukhei as he took the seat next to Mark himself. The younger man—and Yukhei surprised to find that out during their lunch study date—smiled and patted Yukhei’s shoulder. “But I’m surprised you’re finally taking out the time to introduce me to your friends after all the time I’ve been here, hyung.”

 

Sicheng rolled his eyes. “I wanted you to get settled in first; plus you kept blowing me off.”

 

“That was _one_ time and you never said it was with other people so I just assumed it was me being a dumbass Yuta-WinWin chaperone again.”

 

“Didn’t know one equates to seven.” Yukhei glared at his friend and lightened it when Sicheng started to laugh, turning to everyone who was watching the interaction. “Everyone, this is one of my best friends from China, Lucas.”

 

Yukhei in turn met Taeyong (Mark’s roommate), Jaehyun (Taeyong’s boyfriend), Donghyuck (Mark’s best friend), Taeil (Yuta’s best friend), Doyoung (Jaehyun’s best friend), and Johnny, who had entered the circle thanks to a vocal training class with Jaehyun. Yukhei was a little overwhelmed by meeting so many new people at once in such an intimate setting as a friendly get-together, but he soon found himself chatting it up with everyone as best he could. Sicheng would translate some of Yukhei’s words when the young man couldn’t think of the Korean terms and could only figure out his thoughts in Chinese. Mark was quick to help him out in English, Yukhei turning to whisper in his ear before Mark would relay the information for everyone else to understand.

 

“You know Johnny is from America and can understand English. In fact, we all can.” giggled Mark after Yukhei whispered about the Korean word for theater, which he knew like the back of his hand so it was just an excuse to get close to Mark.

 

“I know,” replied Yukhei, letting his breath float over Mark’s ear, “but you’re right next to me and I need to learn these things in Korean, too.” He leaned in just a bit closer and covered his mouth with one of his large hands so the others couldn’t try to read his lips, though they were all distracted amongst themselves. “Besides, I’m close enough that I could just kiss you right here, behind your ear.” He heard Mark’s breathing come to a sudden stop. “Would you like that?”

 

Mark’s face went red and he coughed violently, pulling away as he grabbed his cup of water and tried to hid his face behind the cup. Taeyong got worried and started asking if Mark was alright but Yukhei leaned back in his chair with a satisfied grin and merely turned to Donghyuck to start conversation about how the younger’s freshman year was going.

 

Neither Yukhei nor Mark did anything more drastic with each other throughout dinner and Yukhei let more English slip into his talking when he spoke about Sicheng’s dumb antics back in Hong Kong. He and Sicheng started playfully arguing in Chinese from other ends of the table until Sicheng threatened to call Chenle, his younger cousin, to get accurate details on the incident being reminisced over. Everyone laughed when Yukhei grumbled _asshole_ in English under his breath and Sicheng dared Yukhei to repeat himself and get locked out of their apartment.

 

The night ended calmly with laughter and joy, Yukhei feeling included in the group already despite only knowing everyone for a few hours, Sicheng excluded. The late fall wind was cold and Mark made some stupid excuse for holding Yukhei’s hand in his own during the group’s walk back to campus. Yukhei knew it was a stupid excuse because Mark had gloves—he saw them on the table when he walked in, and the young man had a jacket with pockets along with a thick scarf. Holding Yukhei’s hand was entirely unnecessary but Yukhei allowed it all the same.

 

“What?” Mark had grumbled, not looking up at Yukhei as he twined their fingers together. Yukhei was blushing hard, he knew he was, and he was grateful that they were all the way in the back behind everyone. This probably wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t anyway. “Your hands are big and mine are cold; I’m sure you can spare some heat for me.”

 

“You have baby hands.” Yukhei remarked, squeezing lightly as he looked down at Mark, who had his scarf around his neck as it partially covered his mouth. There were splotches of red on his cheeks too and Yukhei smiled. “It’s cute. You’re cute.”

 

“You’re fucking huge.”

 

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

 

Mark shoved himself into Yukhei’s shoulder and Yukhei fell off balance, laughing when Mark untwined their hands to speed walk ahead of him. Yukhei ran to catch up with him, pulling him by the arm to get him to slow down. Mark did slow down but refused to look up at Yukhei, who only laughed more and took Mark’s hand back in his for the duration of their silent walk.

 

When the group got to campus to send freshman Donghyuck on his way, Mark separated from Yukhei to make his way over to Taeyong and Jaehyun as Yukhei went to Sicheng and Yuta. The others said their short goodbyes and Yukhei made the _call me_ sign at Mark, who rolled his eyes and didn’t bother replying as he, Taeyong, and Jaehyun made their way to their own place. Sicheng, ever so observant, whistled lowly under his breath once they were about a block away from where they dropped off Donghyuck.

 

“What.” growled Yukhei, knowing his dearest friend was about to ask him all sorts of questions about that interaction between him and Mark.

 

“So you didn’t tell me you had gotten yourself a boyfriend.”

 

Yukhei balked, waving his hands erratically. “No! No, he’s not my boyfriend; what the hell, WinWin-hyung?”

 

Sicheng rose both his eyebrows and slipped into Chinese. “You can be honest with me you know.”

 

“Sicheng-ge, I _am_.” snapped Yukhei, crossing his arms angrily. He slipped back into Korean so Yuta wouldn’t feel left out. “He’s not my boyfriend, he’s helping me study Korean.”

 

“You two were cute holding hands.” Yuta pointed out, making Yukhei regret going back to speaking in their common language. “Even if you two aren’t boyfriends, Mark really likes you.”

 

“We met 4 days ago, please,” Yukhei whined petulantly. “He thinks I have pretty eyes.”

 

Sicheng wriggled his eyebrows. “And you think he’s cute.”

 

“I didn’t say that, hyung!”

 

“You don’t have to say it, Yukhei; everyone saw how you two were all over each other during dinner.” Yukhei couldn’t help but blush as he grumbled to himself. “Why don’t you just ask him out? It’s not like a date or two is gonna hurt you.”

 

So three days later—exactly a week since Yukhei first met Mark—Sicheng couldn’t make it out to help Yukhei with his Korean. Yukhei texted Mark for help, Mark asked for them to meet up at the cafe down a couple blocks from campus, and they essentially spent the entire time flirting with each other instead of actually working on Yukhei’s Korean language homework. To be fair, Yukhei did get adequate language practice by ordering his drink and snacks in Korean and using silly pick up lines on Mark.

 

Mark, who was sipping at his coffee and looking at Yukhei with soft eyes, reached out a hand for Yukhei, who rose an eyebrow but gave his hand to Mark. Feeling their fingers twine again like they were meant for one another made Yukhei’s heart very warm and content. “This is kind of obvious,” started Mark as Yukhei began to rub his thumb against Mark’s smaller hand, “but I probably shouldn’t be your language tutor. I thought maybe I could help you but you’re _very_ distracting—in a good way—and this is only the second time but we’re getting no actual work done here when we’re together.”

 

Yukhei nodded with understanding. “We can still meet up and hang out though, right?”

 

“Of course,” Mark smiled and Yukhei’s heart leapt. “I’d very much like to hang out with you like this. Study dates but not necessarily with the studying factor. If you want to.”

 

Yukhei, who was still caught on Mark’s words about wanting to hang out more, nodded eagerly. “Yeah, I’d like that a lot.”

 

They sat in comfortable silence, matching smiles on their lips as Yukhei kept a loose warm grip on Mark’s smaller hand. “Hey,” he continued, never one to live in silence for long, “when we hang out, do you want it to be a bro hang out or, you know, a _date_ hang out?”

 

Mark scowled and Yukhei figured this was probably the worst way he’s ever gone about trying to ask someone out. “A bro hang out?”

 

“Yeah. You know. Just friends.”

 

“Lucas, I can’t believe I’ve been flirting with you every time we see each other, I’ve been holding your hand on and off for the past hour, and I literally just told you I want to go on dates with you, but you think I want you as my _friend_.”

 

Yukhei opened his mouth to counter and then closed it, sheepishly rubbing at the back of his neck with his free hand. “Okay, when you put it like that, it is kind of dumb.”

 

Mark shook his head. “You’re a fool.”

 

“But you like me.”

 

“Yeah, I do.” Mark blushed a little bit. “I want to learn to like you even more. To know you better.”

 

Yukhei blushed as well and stared at their twined hands. “I like you, too, Mark. I want to know you better.” He took Mark’s other hand and squeezed them both. “First off, my Chinese name is Yukhei, Xuxi if you speak Mandarin. You can call me either if you’d like. Secondly, what’s your favorite fruit?”  


 

“Xuxi. That’s a cute name.” Mark cooed and Yukhei’s excited smile turned into one full of adoration. “To answer your question though, my favorite fruit is watermelon. What’s yours?”

 

After a few more hours playing question games and getting to know each other more, Mark walked Yukhei back to his place even though Yukhei was insistent he walk Mark back to _his_ place. Sicheng was at the door already, smirk on his lips when Yukhei and Mark let go of each other’s hands as if they were caught doing something scandalous.

 

The young man grinned and pulled Yukhei inside, raising his voice so Mark could hear him before closing the door behind him. “Just be sure to use protection, kids.”

 

The punch in the gut Sicheng got in response from Yukhei was definitely well deserved.

 

Eventually though, Yukhei got proper revenge on Sicheng a few weeks into dating Mark, bringing Mark over for some studying that they actually made decent progress on before Yukhei got distracted by Mark’s lips. They spent the next half hour languidly making out on the couch to Sicheng’s horror when he came back early from work.

 

Taeyong got his due justice too, two months into Mark and Yukhei dating when Mark surprised Yukhei with a birthday gift and they hurriedly rushed to Mark’s bedroom to use it. Yukhei was carrying Mark as they kissed, Mark’s arms wrapped around Yukhei’s neck and his legs around Yukhei’s waist, and he wasn’t looking when he pushed open the closest door which they later realized to be Taeyong’s. Yukhei tossed Mark onto the bed and hovered over him, Mark’s enthusiastic whines getting louder as Yukhei peeled off his shirt and started kissing his way down to the waistline of Mark’s jeans, freezing in his actions as he spotted Taeyong in his peripheral vision. Mark noticed too and they all sat in silence until Taeyong excused himself with a cough and just asked them not to fuck up his sheets too much. Needless to say, Taeyong started locking his door more and texting Mark whenever he was planning to be out and whenever he came back home.

 

Too soon six months passed since that day in the cafe, six months Yukhei had spent learning about Mark Lee— _baby lion_ as he so often affectionately called the other man—and learning how to fall in love. The latter was surprisingly easy to learn when the person he fell for was so easy to adore. Unfortunately at the end of these six months Sicheng and Yukhei were heading back to China for the summer while Mark was planning to return to Canada. Yukhei’s school year for studying abroad had ended and Mark was considering going back to his Canadian university anyway. Even though Mark and Yukhei both knew Yukhei had packed all his bags, there wasn’t the air of his departure in their last few dates. If anything, they spend as many hours as possible together, drinking up the beginnings of summer side by side.

 

“If I stay here in Korea for school after all,” said Mark on Yukhei’s last day, looking up at the blue sky as the two sat in beach sand. He sat between Yukhei’s legs and Yukhei played with his hair. “Would you come visit?”

 

“Even if you do go back to Canada, I’d still find a way to visit,” Yukhei replied, leaning down to kiss the top of his boyfriend’s head. “I won’t let this end just because we’re gonna be in different countries. I like you too much.”

 

Mark laughed and reached back to twine their fingers together. “I’ll miss this.”

 

“Me too.”

 

A comfortable silence fell and Yukhei was reminded of how much he loved the silence that commenced between him and Mark. He was a very boisterous and loud person but something was very comforting about the simple sounds of ambience with Mark at his side. “Hey Yukhei, I want to say something bold, if I may.”

 

“If you’re breaking up with me, keep it.”

 

Mark snorted and twisted in the sand so he could cup Yukhei’s face and press their foreheads together. Yukhei found himself entranced by Mark’s vibrant brown eyes. He always found it interesting how Mark called him _pretty eyed Lucas_  when Mark himself had some of the most beautiful eyes Yukhei had ever seen. “I have to say this at least once before you go.”

 

“Say it.”

 

Mark’s thumb rubbed against Yukhei’s cheek. “I love you, Yukhei.”  


 

Yukhei leaned in to close the gap between the two, if only to distract Mark from the tears pooling in his eyes at the sentiment. He covered Mark’s small hands with his shaking larger ones and kissed the other man with all the heart he could. “I love you, too, Mark. So much.”

 

“ _I love you, Yukhei_.” Mark repeated, this time in Cantonese and Yukhei couldn’t help it when his throat locked up and the tears started to slip down his face against Mark’s hands. Mark cooed. “Don’t cry.”

 

“You can’t fucking tell me you love me in my native dialect and expect me _not_ to cry, asshole.”

 

Mark laughed and wiped at the tears on Yukhei’s face with his thumbs, kissing the other man’s damp cheeks in the process. He kissed Yukhei’s nose before rubbing his nose against it. “You’re adorable.”

 

Yukhei sniffed and wiped at his eyes as he cracked a smile. “I learned from the best: my baby lion.”

 

They played on the shore, digging up sand crabs and chasing after the ocean waves, getting drenched by waves and calling Sicheng to pick them up long after the sun had set and the stars had come out against the night sky to join the party. The drive back to Yukhei’s place was silent, but it wasn’t a bad silence. Mark had fallen asleep on Yukhei’s shoulder as they sat in the back, Sicheng and Yuta up front, and Yukhei wanted to bask in this moment for as long as possible.

 

Silence was something else Yukhei had learned by falling in love with Mark. Sometimes the little things—the soft snores of a loved one deep in sleep, or the echoes of a familiar ringtone that didn’t actually ring, a ringtone that _wouldn’t_ ring as long as the problems between potential caller and called party remained unfixed—ended up being what one most needed to hear in the cacophony silence created.

 

Mark stayed the night, cuddled in Yukhei’s arms and still asleep when Yukhei had to wake up to get to the airport. He was half tempted to let Mark asleep but he knew Mark wanted to send him off at the airport so he would sacrifice Mark’s possible grumpiness in exchange for one last goodbye.

 

Sicheng went inside the airport first, kissing Yuta warmly before giving Mark a long hug goodbye and asking Mark to promise to take care before going back to Canada. Yukhei felt a lump in his throat as he stood at the car with his bags in hand as Sicheng disappeared into the crowd. Yukhei was never the best with goodbyes; even when Sicheng moved to Korea he had cried and spent a month not talking to him because it hurt so bad to have his childhood best friend gone after years by each other’s side.

 

“I’ll see you soon, Yukhei.” Mark said with a certain finality to it that brought Yukhei from his thoughts.

 

He turned to the other man and nodded faintly. “Yeah. Soon, I hope.”

 

“No hope to it, my love.” Yukhei blushed but smiled when Mark reached up on his toes to kiss Yukhei’s cheek. “I’ll see you soon.”

 

A month and half into the summer, a month and a half spent texting and video chatting as much as possible, time zone differences resulting in missed calls and late nights, Sicheng, Chenle, Renjun (a friend Chenle made during Yukhei’s time in Korea), Kun—Sicheng’s high school friend—and Yukhei all traveled to Beijing for a week. It was Yukhei’s first time in the city and he was extremely excited to be somewhere else besides Hong Kong. The group spent most days wandering about the city and buying little gifts, trying new foods and checking out the Forbidden City along the way. On the fifth night, Kun took Renjun and Chenle further downtown and left Sicheng and Yukhei uptown on their last day in the city, the duo making their way to _Shichahai_ , a collective of the three most northern lakes in Beijing.

 

Yukhei video chatted Mark as he and Sicheng traveled through _Beihai_ park, the younger wanting to show his boyfriend the beautiful scenery. Mark was sleepy, rubbing at his face constantly but smiling warmly at Yukhei’s enthusiasm. “One day I’ll take you here and we can paddle a boat on the _Houhai_!”

 

“Yeah? I can’t wait to see it. We can go tomorrow.”

 

Yukhei laughed, assuming Mark’s sleepiness was making him forget their distance. He didn’t want to bring that up and ruin the mood though so he nodded. “Yeah. One day it will be tomorrow.”

 

Mark yawned heavily and part of Yukhei’s heart yearned to be at his side so he could pull Mark into his arms and let him sleep. “Baby lion,” he started affectionately, “you should get some rest. I should spend more time with hyung anyway.”

 

“Okay.” Mark was already falling asleep on the phone. “I love you.”

 

“Love you, too.”

 

Yukhei sighed as he pocketed his phone and walked to Sicheng’s side, facing the _Xihai_ as they stood in moderate silence. “I’m going to Japan tomorrow,” blurted Sicheng, startling Yukhei from his wandering thoughts.

 

“What?”

 

“Since Kun and I planned on taking all you kids out here from the start of summer, I figured I’d also arrange my flight out to Yut—Japan.”

 

“You can say Yuta, Sicheng-ge.” Yukhei nudged Sicheng with a smirk. “Besides, I can help Kun-ge take care of the children. I’ll be okay.”

 

Sicheng looked as if he was about to say something but shook his head and ruffled Yukhei’s hair to the younger’s avid protest.

 

The group congregated back at their hotel and sent each other off to bed, Sicheng and Yukhei sharing a room themselves. Sicheng’s bags were already packed—Yukhei vaguely wondered how he had missed that when they first left the room—and the soon-to-be-departing man laid back down on the bed staring up at the ceiling with thoughts laced in his gaze.

 

“Do you miss him?”

 

Yukhei looked up from picking out his t-shirt for the night. “As in Mark?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Of course.” Yukhei shuffled into his sleep clothes and crawled onto the bed. “I’m always missing him. Some days more than other days but yeah, I miss him a lot.”

 

Sicheng nodded and popped up from his bed. “I’m going to shower. You get some rest, it’s gonna be a busy day tomorrow based on what Kun-ge has planned.”

 

Yukhei nodded and quickly fell into a deep slumber, waking up in the middle of the night when in the silence he heard Sicheng whispering, probably chatting on the phone with Yuta to finalize arrangements for his arrival in Japan. Yukhei had gone back to sleep with little struggle, dreaming that Mark was at his side, shrouding him in a familiar warmth he missed like no other.

 

When Yukhei woke up for good, sunlight streaming into the room and blinding his still opening eyes, he found himself tangled up in limbs. It wouldn’t be the first time he had accidentally cuddled Sicheng to near death, but he felt extremely sorry for it and tried to sneak out of Sicheng’s grasp.

 

The grasp the other man had on him was tight and unmoving.

 

“Sicheng-ge,” whispered Yukhei in Chinese as he tried to squirm out of the other man’s arms. “I love you but I’m not Yuta-ge; please let me go, I have to _pee_.”

 

“Just, one more minute,” a voice mumbled and Yukhei froze with his gesticulations.

 

He slowly turned and found himself face to face with Mark Lee, _his_ Mark Lee, whose recently bleached blonde curls lied flat against his head as he slept, arms wrapped around Yukhei, lips slightly parted with each breath he took.

 

Yukhei found it hard to breathe. He wanted to pinch himself to see if he was dreaming but his arms were pinned down and he didn’t want to wake up Mark so he figured this was reality and that realization made him want to cry but crying would wake Mark up which might make Mark think he isn’t happy to see him when actually Yukhei is ecstatic and absolutely joyful and—

 

“You’re staring.”

 

Mark smiled as Yukhei squeaked with embarrassment and hid his face in the pillows. Mark untwined their limbs and leaned forward to kiss Yukhei’s ear. “Hello, Xuxi.”

 

“You’re here,” wheezed Yukhei when he pulled Mark into his chest. “You’re actually here, you’re not a silly fragment of my imagination out to haunt me; you’re actually _here_.”

 

Mark laughed. “I told you soon would be soon.”

 

Yukhei couldn’t help it when the happy tears filled his eyes and he grabbed Mark’s face to kiss him, to feel those familiar warm lips on his again and taste the love he had missed during the past month and a half. Mark responded enthusiastically but pulled Yukhei away before things could get too steamy. “While I would love to continue, you said you have to pee.”

 

“I said that so Sicheng-hyung would let me go.”

 

Mark rolled his eyes and Yukhei grinned wider, stealing a kiss with laughter. “Okay, well, besides that you said you wanted to take me paddling on the lakes, right?”

 

After quick showers and a local’s breakfast, Yukhei did exactly that with Mark, giddy and taking candid shots every time he could. He sent Sicheng a thank you text knowing the other man wouldn’t see it for a little while, but he had some idea that Sicheng had coordinated this little part of their vacation in Beijing.

 

Yukhei sat back and watched Mark look out toward the lakes, warm smile on his pink lips, brown eyes sparkling in the sunlight. It was a rare day showcasing the blue sky, making photographs more serene and gorgeous. Mark’s curly blonde hair waved in the wind, brushing against his face and he’d push his bangs aside with a chuckle every so often. Yukhei was content saying nothing, letting his handsome boyfriend snatch away all the words he could ever think to say. He certainly didn’t know what to say when Mark suddenly looked at him, eyes full with emotion, and they stared at each other for who knew how long, exchanging a warm and secret _I love you_ midst the publicity of the boat ride.

 

When they walked side by side through the park, never holding hands but always so close to doing so, Yukhei smiled to himself. Even though Mark would be leaving in two more days and Yukhei would go back to studying in Hong Kong while Mark was in Canada, he was very grateful to have friends who loved him so much to organize this trip and a boyfriend who loved him so much to come out here in the first place.

 

“Next time,” stated Yukhei as he and Mark stood together under the shade of a tree, “I’ll go out to Canada.”

 

Mark’s eyes widened. “Really? You want to come visit me out there?”

 

“Of course I do.” Yukhei’s voice echoed how scandalous he felt at that statement. “Why wouldn’t I want to go see you? I don’t care if they speak mostly French and English out there, I only need to communicate with you.”

 

“No, I didn’t mean to insult you. I just was surprised. Vancouver is so far away and costly to travel to. I was still in Korea before I came out here so it wasn’t too much to get to you.” Mark sighed heavily. “This is going to be hard; being on opposite ends of the world from each other.”

 

Yukhei yearned to hold Mark’s hand in his, to give the younger man comfort when he needed it. He couldn’t let himself do that at the moment though, not physically at least. “We’ll make it work,” he reassured Mark, smiling over at him.

 

When Mark left from the Beijing airport, it felt like the opposite of when Yukhei had left from Incheon. Mark didn’t sob but he did cry when he hugged Yukhei, kissing behind his ear as he stood on his toes to reach Yukhei’s neck so he could wrap his arms around him. Yukhei could feel his heart clench in on itself as he watched Mark wave one last time, Kun, Chenle and Renjun at his side as they sent Mark off.

 

“You’re really in love, aren’t you, Xuxi-ge,” remarked Chenle as the quartet made their way out the airport via taxi.

 

Yukhei nodded to himself as he looked out the passenger window, watching the airport grow smaller in the distance. A smile danced on his lips as he closed his pretty eyes. “Yeah, I really am.”

**Author's Note:**

> \-- china line (minus winwin on the way back) took the train from hong kong to beijing and vice versa so they dont get on a plane at the airport even though they all leave beijing the same day
> 
> \-- winwin is a nickname given to sicheng when he was younger, he introduces himself with it while in korea like how yukhei introduces himself as lucas but yukhei mostly calls him sicheng for familiarity's sake
> 
> \-- the only member native to hong kong is yukhei, the rest of china line are from their native provinces, they just all ended up moving to hong kong at different points with sicheng moving first when he was like 9 or smth and renjun moving during the year yukhei's abroad
> 
> \-- yukhei goes to canada for winter break to see mark and mark shows him off to all his local friends (ten and the dreamies minus chenle and renjun)
> 
> \-- they get promise rings while in vancouver bc they are a sappy couple and yukhei keeps teasing mark abt the ring size difference between the two of them and mark is like pls stop calling me a baby im only 8 months younger than u
> 
> \-- after graduation mark moves to korea after signing with an sk label and yukhei moves to korea to further his theater studies . they end up in seoul together and the rest is, as they say, history


End file.
